A VISIT FUOM THE SPANIARDS. 77 



than twenty-five.* Taking all of this into consideration 

 it is quite possible that the piece of chain-mail may 

 have been obtained by the natives of these villages, in 

 barter or otherwise, from Coronado's soldiers. Col. 

 Henry Inman has stated his positive opinion that it 

 came from some soldier either of the command of Ca- 

 bega de Vaca, Coronado, or of De Soto, f most likely 

 the latter. But our best historians doubt that De 

 Soto's expedition came as far west as Kansas. J 



The archaeological evidence perhaps to some extent 

 supports the view that it came from Coronado's expe- 

 dition. The accounts we have of the people which he 

 met in Quivira characterize in some respects the resi- 

 dents of the old village, as we know them from their 

 dwelling sites and from the I'elics which these contain. 

 In the anonymous Spanish document Itelacion de Suceso 

 we learn that the inhabitants of Quivira lived in houses 

 built of straw. There were several villages of these 

 houses. The inhabitants raised corn and made bread. 

 This bread was cooked in fires under the ashes. || In 

 Jaramillo's narrative we are told that the straw-houses 

 were round and that "the straw of the walls reached 

 down to the ground like a wall". People who have 

 lived on the Plains will realize that in such a shelter 

 the prevalent sandstorms would deposit drifts of dust 

 and sand. In course of time there would then be a 



* Winship, op. cit., p. .582. 



t The Santa Fe Trail, New York, Mac Millan & Co., 1897. 

 t Narrative and Critical History of America, Justin Winsor, Vol. II., p. 296 

 Also History of United States, Geo. Bancroft, Vol. I., p. 52. 

 II Winship, op, cit., p. 578. 



